TRANS-SIBERIAN DAY 4 | Deepest Lake in the World!

It is 7am we have officially completed the first 74 hour leg of our journey and we're about to get off the train here in Eirkuts for the next two days.

You would think after 74 hours on the same train that we would both be really relieved to get off.

But I could have stayed longer. I also felt like I developed a little bit of a relationship with our cabin attendants. They were really mean and intimidating at first, but by the end I felt like we had developed a bit of a bond.

We definitely did. I don't think they liked us.

They were still a little scary. She knocked on our door like an hour before the train was supposed to stop.

This morning it seemed like we were stopping and we were freaking out.

We went into like full out panic mode that we were about to miss our stop and then, yeah, we stopped right on time at 7:27.

Oh well.

So now we have to find our way to our hostel that we're staying at for the next two nights.

Staying in a hostel?

It was cheap with sports on first class so we thought we'd save some money by staying in a hostel here. And it cuts. It's a lot of old people.

Here they come.

I see buses to your left. I'm not sure, Kara, if those are tour buses though, I don't see numbers.

Worry about.

All right.

Where are we? It feels so weird being away from the train.

We just got dropped off what I think is like a five minute walk from our hostel. Pretty sure we got charged double for that bus ride, but it was still like a dollar. Super easy. Google Maps. Amazes me that I can just hop off a train in the middle of nowhere, Russia. And it's like, yeah, jump on bus 20 and it'll take you really close to where you need to be.

This looks absolutely nothing like Moscow. Totally different feel.

This looks like a cool little town.

Found it here.

We're all checked into our hostel and we are super excited about what we're doing today because we're gonna get our legs moving, make up for all the time we've been sitting on the train.

Thank you.

So as soon as we got to our hostel, Jack from Bike Alar picked us up and we are driving two hours to a beautiful lake. It's basically the whole reason that we stopped here. We're going to be doing some hiking, but first things first, we're picking up some lunch.

Nothing we bought requires hot water to make, which is really exciting. Even got some healthy fruits in there.

Up we go.

Sad to move.

So we're just getting started on our hike. We drove about two hours here. It is now 12:45. The drive here was absolutely beautiful. All of the trees were turning golden brown because it's like just the start of fall here. So for this hike, we're going to be hiking 12 kilometers in total. We're going to hike 4 kilometers through the woods, then we'll get to the lake, and we'll hike 8 km along the lakeshore.

We saw the main Trans Siberian Railway, right? But you are going to walk the old one, okay, which is not a part of Trans Siberia anymore. And why it happened this way. Look, this Lake Baikal, okay? So they built Trans Siberian Railway from Vladivostok to here and from Moscow to here. And for many years, for almost 15 years, there was no connection. But then we had a problem with Japan. We constantly have problems. So it became obvious that we need to build this connection. And they build it here and then here.

Sam.

We made it to the beautiful lake by call. It is the deepest lake in the world, and it holds 20% of the world's fresh water, which is just crazy, crazy. And it's shaped like a banana. And we're just seeing the teeny, tiny tip of the banana, unfortunately. But we get to walk on these old train tracks for 8 and 12 km till this little village. And Jack's going to meet us there with a van.

So the railroad tracks that we're walking on are actually the old Trans Siberian Railway, but they haven't been used since the 1960s. And that's when they switch from steam trains to electric trains. And the electric trains are more powerful. So now the electric trains, or the new Trans Siberian Railroad is basically a shortcut version. Instead of wrapping around the lake, it takes a more direct path over hill because it has more power, whereas the steam locomotives need it as flat of ground as possible, which is why they built the tracks here around the lake. And now all it's used for today is a tourist train that basically just runs back and forth on this one track. So there used to be two different train tracks. One that ran through this tunnel and one that ran along the lakeshore. And they actually pulled up these train tracks here in order to build the new Trans Siberian Railroad. I think there's like three of these abandoned tunnels that we get to walk through on the hike.

I've been looking for the perfect picnic spot, and I think we've just found it. We picked up some meat and cheese for lunch. We're gonna go have it by the lake.

Back on the trail. Should I say the tracks?

Sam.

We made it to the town. My legs are actually kind of tired. They're not used to all this work. It just felt so good to just be outside all day long. Now we're getting back in the van and heading back to ear.

Kids.

We are back at our hostel and it was a great first day off the train being out in the fresh air, moving around as much needed.

Now we're going to do something that we've been looking forward to doing for a long time. Take a hot shower. And I'm going to shave this mess.

Yay.

I have a lot of dry shampoo caked in my hair.

We have one more day to explore the city tomorrow.

Sam.